Yardbarker: Pittsburgh Pirates

Pirates Kicking The Tires On Ankiel & Blalock

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 08:58:48 -0500

The Pirates are believed to have already made contact with Scott Boras about two of his clients, free agents Rick Ankiel and Hank Blalock, according to Dejan Kovacevic of The Pittsburgh Post Gazette. The team's preference "is for a short-term contract aimed at allowing the player a chance at full-time duty to revive their careers." With Andrew McCutchen in center and Lastings Milledge serving the default leftfielder, the idea is that late-bloomer Garrett Jones would play e...

Pittsburgh Pirates Top 50 Prospects: 6 - Gorkys Hernandez

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 01:56:35 -0500

To cap off the end of the 2009 season, I'm going to be counting down my list of the top 50 prospects in the Pittsburgh Pirates' system. I'll be counting down one prospect per day, with an extensive recap on each player, until I reach number one. Check out the previous installments: 46-50 41-45 36-40 31-35 30 - Brian Friday 29 - Aaron Pribanic 28 - Evan Chambers 27 - Brock Holt 26 - Brooks Pounders 25 - Trent Stevenson 24 - Justin Wilson 23 - Daniel Moskos 22 - Donal...

Pittsburgh Pirates: Top 10 Prospects

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 11:44:11 -0500

General Manager: Neal Huntington Farm Director: Kyle Stark Scouting Director: Greg Smith FanGraphs’ Top 10 Prospects: (2009 Draft Picks/International Signees Not Included) The system is getting better and the Top 10 list would look much more impressive if 2009 draft picks were included… Some of those picks that look good now, though, will fall by the wayside during the 2010 [...]

Pittsburgh Pirates Top 50 Prospects: 7 - Starling Marte

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 03:02:44 -0500

What About Depth?

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 22:04:21 -0500

Sorry for the absence of updates the past few days; it can be hard to post when there isn't much news coming out. Anyway, there was some interesting discussion of the BA top prospects here, and the basic take-away criticism (particularly from Mike Emeigh, a smart long-time Pirates fan and critic) is that the Pirates' farm system still isn't that strong yet. If you look only at the ten-player list BA published, I think that's true, but I don't think a list of ten ...

Andrus, Coghlan, McCutchen Highlight Topps Rookie All-Star Team

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:16:58 -0500

Chris Coghlan adds ToppsRookie All-Star Team to his off-season awards The Topps Company announces the 51st annual Topps Major League Rookie All-Star Team. The summary: 1B Travis Ishikawa, San Francisco (120 games, 9 HR, 39 RBI, .261) 2B Chris Getz, Chicago (A.L.) (107, 2, 31, .261) 3B Gordon Beckham, Chicago (A.L.) (103, 14, 63, .270) SS Elvis Andrus, Texas (145, 6, 40, .267) OF Chris Coghlan, Florida (128, 9, 47, .321) OF Andrew McCutchen, Pittsburgh (108, 12, 54, .286) OF Nolan Reimold, Baltimore (104, 15, 45, .279) C Omir Santos, New York (N.L.) (96, 7, 40, .260) RHP Tommy Hanson, Atlanta (127.2 IP, 11-4, 2.89, 116 K, 46 BB) LHP J.A. Happ, Philadelphia (166 IP, 12-4, 2.93, 119 K, 56 BB) The Topps Major League Rookie All-Star team began in 1959 with Willie McCovey being the first of 16 future Hall of Famers named to the squad (others include Johnny Bench, Rod Carew, Gary Carter, Carlton Fisk, Paul Molitor, Joe Morgan, Eddie Murray, Tony Perez, Kirby Puckett, Jim Rice, Cal Ripken, Ryne Sandberg, Tom Seaver, Ozzie Smith and Billy Williams). The Rookie All-Stars will each have a trophy on their 2010 trading card in Topps Baseball, with Series One due out in late January. Source: Topps OTHER NEWS FROM THE BUSINESS OF SPORTS NETWORK (THE BIZ OF FOOTBALL) Tony Dungy Leads New NFL Player Advisory Forum Jon Gruden Signs Mult-Year Extension with ESPN At Midseason, NFL TV Ratings Exceptionally Strong Boise St. Engages PR Firm in Attempt to Gain BCS Game Does the NFL Salary Cap Still Work? (THE BIZ OF HOCKEY) Relocating NHL Franchises to Canada Inside the Numbers: The 2009 Forbes NHL Valuations NHLPA Votes to Create Two Committees, Approves Donald Fehr to Assist in Exec. Dir. Search The NHL Works to Address Head Hits (THE BIZ OF BASKETBALL) TV Troubles for Bad NBA Teams Despite Economy Early NBA Attendance Only Down 2% Daktronics to Provide Massive Video Display for Amway Center (SPORTS BASH) Because It's Good For You: Rob Neyer Maury Brown is the Founder and President of the Business of Sports Network, which includes The Biz of Baseball, The Biz of Football, The Biz of Basketball and The Biz of Hockey. He is available for hire or freelance. Brown's full bio is here. He looks forward to your comments via email and can be contacted through the Business of Sports Network. Don't forget to register and log in on The Biz of Baseball site to get updates via your in-box, and see information only logged in members can see. Follow Maury Brown on Twitter Follow The Biz of Baseball on Twitter Follow the Business of Sports Network on Facebook

Pittsburgh Pirates: Draft Review

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:00:47 -0500

General Manager: Neal Huntington Farm Director: Kyle Stark Scouting Director: Greg Smith 2006-2009 Draft Results: First three rounds included x- over-draft signees ($200,000+) 2009 1st Round: Tony Sanchez, C, Boston College 1S. Victor Black, RHP, Dallas Baptist 2. Brooks Pounders, RHP, California HS 3. Evan Chambers, OF, Florida CC 4x- Zach Dodson, LHP, Texas HS 6x- Zack Von Rosenberg, RHP, Louisiana HS 7x- Trent Stevenson, RHP, Arizona [...]

Pittsburgh Pirates Top 50 Prospects: 8 - Rudy Owens

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 01:47:15 -0500

Baseball America's Top 10 Prospects

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:53:45 -0500

Baseball America's Top 10 Prospects Nothing too surprising, I suppose. Chase D'Arnaud is up there pretty high, and I'm not sure if Gorkys Hernandez deserves to be in the top 10 anymore. The list omits Moskos in the top draft picks of the decade section, which is probably for the best.

Baseball America's Pirates Top 10 Prospects for 2010

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:24:00 -0500

Baseball America today released their top ten prospects for the Pittsburgh Pirates going in to the 2010 season. Check out the top ten list here, and for Baseball America subscribers, the top ten list with scouting information can be found here. There will also be a chat for subscribers at 1:30 PM with John Perrotto on the rankings.Pedro Alvarez topped the list for the second straight year.

Pittsburgh Pirates Top 50 Prospects: 9 - Chase d'Arnaud

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500

To cap off the end of the 2009 season, I'm going to be counting down my list of the top 50 prospects in the Pittsburgh Pirates' system. I'll be counting down one prospect per day, with an extensive recap on each player, until I reach number one. Check out the previous installments:46-5041-4536-4031-3530 - Brian Friday29 - Aaron Pribanic28 - Evan Chambers27 - Brock Holt26 - Brooks Pounders25 -

Chase d'Arnaud Video Recap

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:20:00 -0500

The Pittsburgh Pirates drafted Chase d'Arnaud in the fourth round of the 2008 draft, out of Pepperdine University. d'Arnaud signed immediately with the Pirates and started his career in State College, where he hit for a .286/.333/.423 line in 168 at-bats.In 2009, d'Arnaud played his first full season as a pro, hitting for a .291/.394/.427 line in West Virginia to start the season. d'Arnaud was

Dan Reichert Made an All-Star Team!

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:27:54 -0500

Remember Dan Reichert? Well, I sure do, but I never thought I’d see his name in a current issue of Baseball America. I admit I am a few issues behind on reading the paper copy of Baseball America’s publication, though I do keep up with their online stuff on a daily basis. You can imagine my [...]

Pittsburgh Pirates Top 50 Prospects: 10 - Zach Von Rosenberg

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500

To cap off the end of the 2009 season, I'm going to be counting down my list of the top 50 prospects in the Pittsburgh Pirates' system. I'll be counting down one prospect per day, with an extensive recap on each player, until I reach number one. Check out the previous installments:46-5041-4536-4031-3530 - Brian Friday29 - Aaron Pribanic28 - Evan Chambers27 - Brock Holt26 - Brooks Pounders25 -

Pittsburgh Pirates Off-Season Tracker

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 19:34:00 -0500

The Off-Season tracker will keep a list of all of the additions the Pittsburgh Pirates have made during the 2009/2010 off-season.The 2010 Proj. Role is the projected role for the player in question, according to the opinion of this web site.The 2010 salary is the major league salary. Official salaries are in bold.

Jose Tabata Now 6-for-6 in Arizona Fall League Game

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:53:22 -0500

Insanity. Jose Tabata is now 6-for-6 with two doubles in Scottsdale's game against the Peoria Javelinas. Also, Chase D'Arnaud has reached base five times in the game. Scottsdale leads 17-8. None of the Pirates' pitchers have entered the game, fortunately. Tabata is now hitting .395 in the AFL. His status as a prospect has improved a bunch in the past few weeks.

Blogging the Offseason: Pittsburgh Pirates

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:10:00 -0500

Blogging the Offseason is a 30 team series in which I ask a blogging representative from each MLB team a series of ten questions about their desires and thoughts surrounding the offseason. Check out all of them here.Today's team NL is the Pittsburgh Pirates and our guest is Pat from the Pirates Blog, Where Have You Gone Andy Slyke?.1. Do you foresee the Pirates making any significant offseason moves or do you see them going with straight youth?Well, they've already made one move in tr...

Pirates Minor Leaguers Become Free Agents

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:51:19 -0500

A bunch of Pirates minor leaguers have become free agents. Indulge your inner minor-league geek here: Pittsburgh Pitchers: RHP Jason Davis, RHP Eric Hacker, LHP Corey Hamman, RHP Lincoln Holdzkom, RHP Jorge Julio, LHP Bobby Livingston, RHP Juan Mateo, RHP Scott Nestor, RHP Jeremy Powell, RHP Dionis Rodriguez, RHP Ty Taubenheim, RHP Virgil Vasquez Catchers: Hector Gimenez, Steven Lerud, Miguel Perez, Milver Reyes, Steven Suarez Infielders: Chris Barnwell, Josh Bonifay...

Pirates Face 40-Man Roster Decisions This Week

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:00:54 -0500

40-man rosters have to be set by Friday, so expect some fun stuff to happen this week. The Bucs currently have 36 players on their 40-man roster. That doesn't include Jose Ascanio and Evan Meek, who will both need to be protected by Friday. The Pirates will also have to decide whether to include a number of minor leaguers, any of whom could be selected in the Rule 5 draft in December if they aren't protected: Brad Lincoln, Gorkys Hernandez, Bryan Morris, Ramo...

Should the Pirates Trade Ryan Doumit?

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 09:15:00 -0500

After the Pirates traded Nate McLouth last spring, I figured the Pirates would be building around Ryan Doumit and his team friendly contract. Well, maybe not:"Pirates switch hitter Ryan Doumit drew interest from several teams during this week's general managers' meetings in Chicago, multiple Major League sources said Thursday.The sources believe Pittsburgh would not hesitate to move Doumit, 28, in the right deal. The Pirates have dealt a number of veteran players since Neal Hunti...